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My "pet" deer

So I had a deer that has been hanging out in my horse's haystack for like the past month. I took tons of pictures of him and always enjoyed seeing him. Sadly, he went to the big haystack in the sky! He had a really different rack and tomorrow the G & F is coming out to give me a tag for it and run some tests to see why he died.

Got my Wyoming Wildlife today and there is an interesting article that might have something to do with this. Article states that feeding hay to deer in the winter is actually bad for them as they have some sort of different type of bacteria that developes during the winter that allows them to change their diet. Havn't had a chance to read the whole thing, but we have the same situation around here.

Last edited by Colorado Cowboy; 02-19-2013 at 06:20 PM.

Colorado Cowboy
Cowboy Action Shooter; Endowment Life Member-NRA
The Original Rocket Scientist-Retired
"My Father always considered a walk in the mountains as the equivalent of church going."
Aldous Huxley

Got my Wyoming Wildlife today and there is an interesting article that might have something to do with this. Article states that feeding hay to deer in the winter is actually bad for them as they have some sort of different type of bacteria that developes during the winter that allows them to change their diet. Havn't had a chance to read the whole thing, but we have the same situation around here.

I've been poking around on the Wyoming Game and Fish site wanting to hunt deer out there this coming season with some friends. While searching the other day I saw what you mention about deer and the severe drought and lack of feed on their site. Specific types of bacteria in their rumen are required to aid in the digestion of naturally occurring foods. Deer's digestive system can’t adapt quickly enough to make the diet changes and supplementally fed mule deer die with stomachs full of undigested feed.

If that's the case it just seems sad to have to go out that way. Cool looking buck with some strange antler growth. Let us know what you hear back from the Game official Jen. It would be interesting to hear what killed him.

After I read the whole story, their conclusion is that they don't supplement feed the deer in the winter. The drought I was talking about was in south central Wyoming. Yes when I was there last October it was really dry. A lot of the water holes that I was used to seeing water in were dry and the antelope numbers were way down from what I was used to seeing.

Colorado Cowboy
Cowboy Action Shooter; Endowment Life Member-NRA
The Original Rocket Scientist-Retired
"My Father always considered a walk in the mountains as the equivalent of church going."
Aldous Huxley

After talking with the game warden today, he confirmed he basically died of starvation. He said that in the winter, a deers stomach cannot break down a diet of hot alfalfa and they sit there and eat it and their stomach tricks them into feeling like they are full when in reality they are not even close. So even though he was living in a hay stack which I thought was good for him, it actually ended up killing him. So sad! From now on, I'm chasing them out of the hay stacks! I got a tag for him today and so now I'm gonna probably euro mount him.